Audience: Older teenagers and
adults
REVIEWER: Jerry
Langford
SO CLOSE is about two
sisters operating as assassins
and a sharp policewoman hot on
their trail. The sisters,
originally motivated by taking
vengeance on the “ruthless
businessmen” who murdered
their parents, now operate a
successful murder-for-hire
website. Soon, an evil
corporate mogul kills one of
the sisters. Therefore, the
surviving sister and cop must
team up for one last
spectacular battle (at least,
that’s what the production
notes called it). Breaking
glass, explosions, shootings,
more breaking glass, martial
arts fighting, pieces of glass
tinkling in slow motion across
the floor, sword fighting, and
glass shards flying through
the air (again in slow motion)
fairly sum up this story. It
is a sappy, awful movie with,
regrettably, only one or two
impressive fight scenes for
the action aficionado.
SO
CLOSE is so bad it boggles the
mind. Directed by celebrated
martial arts choreographer
Cory Yuen (with previous
fight-sequence success in
ROMEO MUST DIE, KISS OF THE
DRAGON, and X-MEN), the film
is an ultra-violent mish-mash
of style over substance with
fighters posing over
practicality. Relying on three
talented and beautiful
actresses, SO CLOSE is a sort
of Chinese CHARLIE’S ANGELS
without the storyline. It may
be a hit in Hong Kong, but
this action flick just
doesn’t translate well to
American audiences.
It cannot
be emphasized enough: SO CLOSE
is painfully and laughably
bad. There are ludicrous pace
changes, and many scenes and
critical dialogue that appear
as cultural gaffes. Evidently,
the Chinese director does not
understand that American
audiences do not, under any
circumstances, want to sit
through martial arts
slow-motion action while a
sound-alike singer warbles
through the Carpenter’s
version of “Close To You.”
Yet, this is what we must
endure, and, worse yet, two
more times. Honestly, it took
great will power to not run
screaming into the lobby. In
addition to this bizarre
audience cruelty, the movie
score alternates between
great-sounding techno-pop and
terribly bad elevator music.
Funniest of all, the elevator
music sounds like 4th
generation pirated songs from
records purchased in a street
market in Shanghai. Concluding
narration wraps up the story
with a Chinese proverb that,
once again, makes no sense to
Western viewers: “A gun is
like a bird…”, something
about gripping it and holding
feathers. It was beyond
comprehension.
SO CLOSE is
filled with excessive
violence, murder, blood and
revenge. At its close, one of
the main characters concludes
she is a lesbian and tries to
persuade the other female lead
to give up men and stay with
her. This bizarre revelation
is another in a long string of
disjointed storylines and
absurd rabbit trails. SO CLOSE
desperately wants its
assortment of genres and
characters blended together
into a tasty high-energy box
office drink, but it looks
like pureed seaweed with
artificial purple
yogurt.
Please address your
comments to:
Jon Gerrans &
Marcus Hu
Partners
Strand
Releasing
1460 Fourth Street,
Suite 302
Santa Monica, CA
90401
Phone: (310)
395-5002
Fax: (310)
395-2502
Email:
strand@strandrel.com

Summary:

SO CLOSE is about two sisters operating as assassins and a sharp policewoman hot on their trail. When an evil corporate mogul kills one of the sisters, the surviving sister and cop must team up for one last spectacular battle. Filled with excessive violence, murder, blood and revenge, SO CLOSE is so bad it boggles the mind.

Review:

SO CLOSE is about two sisters operating as assassins and a sharp policewoman hot on their trail. The sisters, originally motivated by taking vengeance on the “ruthless businessmen” who murdered their parents, now operate a successful murder-for-hire website. Soon, an evil corporate mogul kills one of the sisters. Therefore, the surviving sister and cop must team up for one last spectacular battle (at least, that’s what the production notes called it). Breaking glass, explosions, shootings, more breaking glass, martial arts fighting, pieces of glass tinkling in slow motion across the floor, sword fighting, and glass shards flying through the air (again in slow motion) fairly sum up this story. It is a sappy, awful movie with, regrettably, only one or two impressive fight scenes for the action aficionado.

SO CLOSE is so bad it boggles the mind. Directed by celebrated martial arts choreographer Cory Yuen (with previous fight-sequence success in ROMEO MUST DIE, KISS OF THE DRAGON, and X-MEN), the film is an ultra-violent mish-mash of style over substance with fighters posing over practicality. Relying on three talented and beautiful actresses, SO CLOSE is a sort of Chinese CHARLIE’S ANGELS without the storyline. It may be a hit in Hong Kong, but this action flick just doesn’t translate well to American audiences.

It cannot be emphasized enough: SO CLOSE is painfully and laughably bad. There are ludicrous pace changes, and many scenes and critical dialogue that appear as cultural gaffes. Evidently, the Chinese director does not understand that American audiences do not, under any circumstances, want to sit through martial arts slow-motion action while a sound-alike singer warbles through the Carpenter’s version of “Close To You.” Yet, this is what we must endure, and, worse yet, two more times. Honestly, it took great will power to not run screaming into the lobby. In addition to this bizarre audience cruelty, the movie score alternates between great-sounding techno-pop and terribly bad elevator music. Funniest of all, the elevator music sounds like 4th generation pirated songs from records purchased in a street market in Shanghai. Concluding narration wraps up the story with a Chinese proverb that, once again, makes no sense to Western viewers: “A gun is like a bird…”, something about gripping it and holding feathers. It was beyond comprehension.

SO CLOSE is filled with excessive violence, murder, blood and revenge. At its close, one of the main characters concludes she is a lesbian and tries to persuade the other female lead to give up men and stay with her. This bizarre revelation is another in a long string of disjointed storylines and absurd rabbit trails. SO CLOSE desperately wants its assortment of genres and characters blended together into a tasty high-energy box office drink, but it looks like pureed seaweed with artificial purple yogurt.

Please address your comments to:

Jon Gerrans & Marcus Hu

Partners

Strand Releasing

1460 Fourth Street, Suite 302

Santa Monica, CA 90401

Phone: (310) 395-5002

Fax: (310) 395-2502

Email: strand@strandrel.com

SUMMARY: SO CLOSE is about two sisters operating as assassins and a sharp policewoman hot on their trail. When an evil corporate mogul kills one of the sisters, the surviving sister and cop must team up for one last spectacular battle. Filled with excessive violence, murder, blood and revenge, SO CLOSE is so bad it boggles the mind.